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Carbon Creek (episode)
T'Pol tells Archer and Trip a story about her great-grandmother and two other Vulcans, who crash landed in a small Pennsylvania town in the year 1957. Summary T'Pol has now been on the ''Enterprise'' for exactly one year. Since Jonathan Archer has to send a report to Starfleet about her, he takes some time to know her a little more. At one point, he asks her the reason she went to visit Carbon Creek, Pennsylvania when she was still on Earth. She has qualified it as of a personal matter at first, but Trip is able to convince her to tell them "a story". So she begins the story of the first Vulcan-Human First Contact that happened in 1957 in Carbon Creek. Trip objects citing the fact that all Earth children learn in school that the first contact between Vulcans and Humans occurred in 2063 at Bozeman, Montana, but T'Pol continues her story. of Earth in 1957]] A Vulcan ship was performing a survey from orbit after the recent Sputnik I launch by the Humans. Unfortunately, they had impulse manifold problems and were forced into an emergency landing. Their captain died in the crash, leaving T'Mir (T'Pol's second foremother, who bore a striking resemblance to T'Pol) in command of the three surviving Vulcans. They did not want any contact with Humans but were eventually forced into contact when they ran out of emergency rations. After five days of starvation, Mestral decided to seek some food (they encountered two deer, but since Vulcans are vegetarians, they decided they were not yet desperate enough to eat these). The adventurous Vulcan provided his crewmates with local currencies when he convinced T'Mir to let him play a game of pool (that wouldn't even have challenged a Vulcan child with its simple geometry). Beginning to consider that their distress call had not been received, the three built a life for themselves, finding employment and an apartment. Eventually, Mestral became very interested in Human culture and made many friends. He even defended them when T'Mir said they were worthless people, only trying to destroy each other by any means they had. Even if T'Mir was not willing to make deeper contact with the Humans, her opinion changed a bit when she had a conversation with a boy named Jack, whose mind was very open (he showed interests in meditation and astronomy, as well as other things). A little after, there was an accident in the mine where Mestral was working and he convinced T'Mir to let him save the miners, his friends, with the help of Vulcan technology. They were careful to keep away from the Humans. After about four months, a Vulcan ship finally arrived, saying their distress call made it to Vulcan through a Tellarite freighter. Mestral decided he didn't want to go back to Vulcan as he didn't want to let the chance slip by to study an emerging civilization (he was probably still alive and on hand when the Phoenix first went to warp). T'Mir also showed that her time on Earth had some effects on her and decided to sell Velcro (an invention that would change the world) to help Jack enter college. When the rescue shuttle arrives, T'Mir said that Mestral died in the crash together with the captain, letting her crewmate stay on Earth. Back in the present, Archer and Trip just don't know what to think, as this has never been told to Humans before. T'Pol says that the event is very well documented in the Vulcan archives, but maintains the ambiguity by saying that she just told "a story". It seems that they were real events however, since T'Pol returns to her quarters and takes out the purse her great-grandmother had while on Earth. Memorable Quotes "One of those creatures could sustain us for some time." "Are you suggesting we eat it?" "It's logical to take extreme measures in order to survive." "Even resorting to savagery?" : - Mestral and Stron upon seeing a wild deer "Currency?" "Yes. The paper appears to have value" "What can I get you?" "Do you have anything that doesn't require currency?" : - T'Mir and Mestral's, first contact with a Human "The game is based on simple geometry. It wouldn't challenge a Vulcan child." : - Mestral, describing a pool game "It's a shame you'll be leaving this world without experiencing some of the things it has to offer." "Such as? Alcohol? Frozen fishsticks? The constant threat of nuclear annhiliation?" : - Mestral and Stron "This species is on the brink of self-destruction." : - T'Mir's pessimistic opinion of the human race "There is a comic actor known as a 'stooge'. Apparently, we share similar hair." "There is a resemblance." : - Stron complaining to Mestral Background Information * Dominic Keating (Lt. Malcolm Reed), John Billingsley (Dr. Phlox), Anthony Montgomery (Ensign Travis Mayweather) and Linda Park (Ensign Hoshi Sato) do not appear in this episode. * This episode takes place on the first anniversary of T'Pol's assignment to ''Enterprise''. It is also revealed that the previous record for a Vulcan serving on an Earth starship was ten days. *J. Paul Boehmer previously played Vornar in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Tacking Into the Wind". * This episode is one of the few on-screen depictions of a Vulcan drinking alcohol. * In reality, Velcro was invented by George de Mestral. This is where Mestral got his name. * New, lighter blue-colored Starfleet jumpsuits were produced for the second season, but not seen until this episode. At first worn by only the regular cast members, the new uniform color eventually became more widely used as the season continued. *This episode was shot before , though aired after. *This episode's opening scenes and premise are very similar to an earlier novel, Strangers from the Sky, which described a pre-first contact crash of a Vulcan scout ship on Earth. *Mestral mentions that he is an avid fan of the television show I Love Lucy. This is an apparent homage to the fact that Star Trek was first produced by Desilu Productions, which was purchased by Paramount Pictures. *In the scene where T'Mir leaves the patent office, a shot of an older design of a US$50.00 bill is shown in her purse. However, in the next scene, there is a clear shot of the back of a modern US$50.00 bill in the change jar. Links and References Guest Stars *Jolene Blalock as T'Mir *J. Paul Boehmer as Mestral *Michael Krawic as Stron *Ann Cusack as Maggie *Hank Harris as Jack *Clay Wilcox as Billy *David Selburg as Vulcan Captain *Ron Marasco as Vulcan Officer *Paul Hayes as R. Ascher References alcohol; aliens; Armstrong, Neil; annual crew evaluation; astronomy; atomic bomb; baseball; Bozeman; Buddhist monks; Carbon Creek; Carlsbad Caverns; Cochrane, Zefram; cryogenics; deer; distress call; Doylestown; D'Vahl; D'Vahl type; emergency rations; fakirs; First Contact; frozen fish sticks; Garrett, Mrs.; Gavin; geology; geometry; India; I Love Lucy; Mars; Mechanical engineering; Moe; Montana; movie; nuclear device; particle weapon; Pennsylvania; Phoenix; Pine Tree; Pittsburgh; pool; President of the United States; protein replicator; quartz; satellite; Sausalito; Sputnik I; subspace transceiver; Tellarite freighter; Tellarite; Tellus; television; Three Stooges, The; Tibet; Tim; TV dinner; Twilight Zone, The; warp field engineer; waveform discriminator; White Sands; Velcro; Vulcan; Vulcan High Command; Vulcan Science Directorate; Vulcan Space Council; Vulcan survey vessel; Vulcans; Yellowstone Park; pretzel |next= }} Category: ENT episodes de:Carbon Creek (Episode) es:Carbon Creek nl:Carbon Creek (aflevering)